Women in Wigs - WHITEWIGS (Pink Sneeze). Max Sharam

How does the act of putting on different colored wigs shift spectator perceptions of identity, sexuality, status and class? In a series of video performances I ate fruit and vegetables whose colors more or less corresponded to the color of the wig.

I was interested in playing with female identity as a social construction. As Simone de Beauvoir claimed, “one is not born, but rather, becomes a woman.” Philosopher Judith Butler has discussed gender as a performative act. The body comes to bear cultural meaning through historically contingent repeated performances that bear similarities to theatrical performances.

In this piece I was interested in exploring performance and self-portraiture using video. In particular